Mikel to cap­tain Team Nige­ria in Rio

John Obi Mikel has been named the Team Nige­ria cap­tain for the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

The sports min­istry in Nige­ria stated that the Chelsea mid­fielder has been picked as he is re­garded as “a role model to the up­com­ing ath­letes.”

The 29-year-old is one of the over-aged players named in the Nige­ria Un­der-23 national team for the men’s foot­ball event at the Olympics.

It is the first time that Mikel will make an ap­pear­ance at the Olympic Games.

Ta­ble ten­nis star Funke Oshonaike has been named as­sis­tant cap­tain.

“Mikel is a young, pa­tri­otic foot­baller of in­ter­na­tional sta­tus and we be­lieve he will be a role model to the up­com­ing ath­letes while Funke Oshonaike is ex­pe­ri­enced and is one of the old­est ath­letes in the team. We be­lieve that their com­bined ef­forts will bring good­will to Team Nige­ria and project the county’s image pos­i­tively to the world,” stated the head of mis­sion, Chris­tian Ohaa.

The Olympics in Brazil will be staged be­tween Au­gust 5 and 21.

Lionel Messi of Ar­gentina con­trols the ball against John Obi Mikel of Nige­ria dur­ing the 2014 FIFA World Cup Group F match. Nige­ria lost 2-3.